Hot Hot Hot!!!

July

Summer Workshops

First week of the Summer Workshops 150 youth were expected but 320 turned up. The building was full of people everywhere. The themes of this workshop were: Obedience, friendship, how to serve each other and how to listen and many more. Week 2 there were 260 youth that came for the workshops and week 3 for the sports competition 150 youth. During the whole time of the workshops this summer: 798 Youth took part

There were different workshops going on the whole week: Acting, cooking, break dance, business, music, dance, table tennis, national dance, crafts and many more.

The time was a great time of learning to know each other and develop each others talents and learning to use them in positive ways to bless others.

Each week everyone went to the local beach to swim which cooled everyone down, the current temperature in Tajikistan is 36+C.

One of the workshops was Break Dance

The only place that the break dance could take place was on the roof of the new building, the 3rd floor. Each week there were at least 40+ students learning to break dance. Together with the break dance training social training was also given and discussions held.

Ramzidin, aged 13, he attends one of ‘Youth Life’s’ youth clubs in another city. Ramzidin started to learn break dance but he was finding it hard to pickup. The break dance trainer encouraged him and each day there was a teaching about character for example: How to listen, why we need to obey etc and this helped him to learn and develop in his break dance. As a result of his good attitude he was allowed to attend the workshops the following week. Now he wants to develop this area of his life more and more. He wants to join ‘Youth Life’s’ main break dance team training each week.

Holidays!!!!

JUNE

Presentation

750 Youth and parents attended this outreach. The theme was ‘What are your talents’. 22 clubs took part, the youth clubs presented: Songs, rap, slide show, film clip, break dance, Tajik dance, and contemporary dance, cow boys, dancing with candles, fashion show, Indian drama and various poems.

The clubs presenting their talents to the local community

This year what was different to previous years was that there were many more parents, directors of schools attending the presentation which helps the community to see how talented their children really are.

This year a mobile café was set up which many people enjoyed. A presentation of all businesses was also set up before the concert and different youth were able to sell things from their businesses to help support their clubs.



Dance team presented a hat dance

Battle
June 16th a break dance competition was held in Khujand in Tajikistan. 450 Youth attended this outreach. Teams came from other towns to compete, 5 people came from Dushanbe the Capital of Tajikistan.

The results of the Battle were:
First place Dushanbe ‘Crazy Guys’
Second place Khujand ‘City Power’
Third place Khujand ‘New Life’

‘Crazy Guys’ from Dushanbe during the Battle shared with Youth Life break dance team that such concerts and activities are not being developed in the Capital and they wish that they could have such a work in Dushanbe, so that these spheres could grow more.

Training
Volunteer Training of Youth workers and a scout camp were held at the end of June
Results of this training were how well the Youth Volunteers took part, they were much more active and the atmosphere during the training was positive and open.










Youth volunteer training 68 youth

New Beginnings

May 2007

Tear Fund Visited

The beginning of the month of May Tear Fund representatives visited ‘Youth Life’ in Tajikistan. For 3 days Youth Life presented their work to Tear Fund. It was a great time of sharing and listening to each other. This time also confirmed how important this work is in Central Asia and that we must develop even more useful programmes for youth in the region.

Preparation for Break Dance Battle and Presentation of Youth Life’s work in Tajikistan

The month of May is very much a winding down month for all youth clubs. This year several of the youth outreaches were planned for June. The end of May was used to prepare for these outreaches.

Active and Busy Month

April 2007

Jam
This is an outreach to other Break Dancers in the local area. Break dancers come together not to compete but to share what moves they know and to see what others are learning. This is a friendly time to talk and dance and encourage each other in break dance. Youth Life hired a sports hall for this event in the city centre. 130 youth took part and 80 break dancers came to this outreach. In June the Battle will be held by Youth Life in Tajikistan, the Jam was also used to see how many teams are willing to take part and to help with the bigger event which is the Battle!

Samaritan Purse Presents and Concerts
The past 3 months Youth Life has been distributing to schools, kindergartens, hostels etc presents from Samaritans Purse. Each youth leader has organized mini presentations or concerts in the schools and kindergartens where ever they work and have clubs and during the presentation presents were presented to more than 3000 children and youth. All of which were extremely happy to receive such delightful gifts that they are able to keep. The great thing about these presents is how they open many new hearts to Youth Life’s work and that friendships and help can be shared with really needy young people. This is a long term work.

Spring Youth Leaders Camp in ‘Shakriston’
This year Youth Life’s youth leaders camp was moved from March to April as repairing on the new building was in full swing and every ones help was needed. The end of April 75 youth leaders headed to the beautiful mountains of Tajikistan called ‘Shakriston’ to spend 5 days together camping. The theme was all focused on ‘Who am I’, ‘What kind of personality do I have?’. Some of the highlights of this camp were: practically teaching the youth how good and bad decisions can affect our lives in different ways. Spring had already come so the mountains were green and this was a pleasant change to freezing snow and cold temperatures.

The last night all the youth leaders took part in a presentation where each one of them presented something in a creative way to bless the others, this was a great fun time that blessed everyone!!

Moving to the New Building phase 1
Finally the beginning of April it was time to move all Youth Life’s things to the new premises. Everything was not yet ready but the first floor was ready for the office furniture. 5 Trucks were rented to transport all the things that Youth Life has collected over the past 9 years. This was a great moment as so much effort and strength from the young people's hearts has gone into this project and to see it coming together strengthened the purpose and vision of the team. Currently the first building is being finished and the foundations and skate park will be started within the next few weeks.

New Hope.....

March 2007

Break Dance team performed in different concerts

Youth Life has 3 teams that it is working with in Tajikistan, a team that it supports in Bulgaria and 2 teams that it partners with in Kyrgyzstan. In Tajikistan the Break Dance team ‘New Life’ trains 3 times a week and through out the month they also perform in concerts and have a small business where they get paid to dance in wedding celebrations. This sphere of the work is growing very rapidly and there is a big interest from different countries to get the Breakers to visit and train other young people.

New Generation Concert in the city of Kairokum

March 3rd a concert was organized and held in the city of Kairokum, the concert was based around the topic ‘True Friendship won’t break’. The auditorium was full with people, and people were waiting outside to come in; more than 500 youth attended this outreach. 50 youth were involved in setting up the concert and in performing on the stage.

Comment from this concert:
One man who attend this concert was very impressed with all he saw and heard and told to one of the youth leaders, “We used to have such concerts when I was a child but we have not had such well organized and put together concerts for along time”.

Two big orienteering games were held in two main cities in the North of Tajikistan

Finally spring has come to Tajikistan, as the weather is better Youth Life decided to gather clubs from different cities together for a competition outside. One was held in the City of Chekalovsk and the other in Khujand. The purpose of the event was to encourage all the clubs by meeting together, make new friends, activate the youth and to learn from the whole event useful things for life. In Chekalovsk more than 400 came and in Khujand 700. The clubs that won each competition were: In Chekalovsk club ‘Cool Guys’ from the city of Karikom , they were all presented with prizes that can be used in their club activities. In Khujand the club ‘Sunrise’ won.

Two of Youth Life’s project finished with two of our best donors GG and WER

Two of Youth Life’s supporting organizations projects have now come to an end and Youth Life would like to thank them for all their support and partnership and looks forwards to the possibility of working together more in the future.

Soon it will be SPRING!!!

February 2007

Janya specalizes in marketing and helps to develop businesses for Young People

One of the clubs business at Youth Life's Concert

Focus on BUSINESS!!!

The whole of the program Youth Life runs is to empower young people from a young age right into adult hood. Business is the way forward for the future. Youth Life encourages young people to start businesses. They run an interactive program with each club to start small mini businesses to give young people experience in actually doing business. Youth Life has many activities such as concerts and camps when many young people take part and where businesses are easy to set up and money can be made. This past year 18 different businesses have been run and all profits are given back to the club to invest in further activities that they choose. The long term future there are plans to set up a training for families that are vulnerable to start businesses and for youth leaders to take the more successful business concepts and enlarge them and run for future ventures.

Bahrom is an inovator and had lots of new ideas for businesses locally



Youth outreach based entirely on Knowledge

Each year “Forum of Knowledge” is held where different youth from different clubs compete to win first place in this competition. Each team has to present a different town or city from Tajikistan and prepare costume, information about different cultural aspects of that place in a good and clear way. Teachers and professors from schools and Universities are invited to judge the competition and to award the prizes. 250 youth and adults attended this outreach.

One of the teams competing in the Forum of Knowledge

New Premises

Repairing, repairing and repairing….. the new premises is almost ready, the team has been amazing in how they have pulled together to get things ready. Parents of our youth have also been helping. Soon the office will move and then we have more repairing to do to complete the new parts of the works expansion.

Repair of the New Building, getting better and better!

Friends are friends forever

January 2007

Highlights from January:

Nick with good friend Bahrom

Nick visits Youth Life after almost a year:
It was great after almost a whole year to get to go back to Tajikistan and see how the work was doing. The first great difference was to see how the new leadership team of 6 young adults were supporting each other and working out problems. Another great difference is those who lead the work were all on the receiving end of the services Youth Life has given over the years so they all know what it is like to receive the services and to give them. So they are in a much better position to bring changes to the work that will benefit the youth we serve and equip the youth leaders to do a good job.

During my visit I also made a point of visiting several youth leaders’ parents at home. Winter is always a challenging time of the year. Conditions this year have proved to be much harder than in previous years. So we decided to hold a presentation and party for all our youth leaders families so they would be encouraged by what their children are doing.

All Youth Leaders singing to their parents at the parents meeting

Youth Leaders Parents meetings

Almost all the parents came to the presentation and party Youth Life put together. This was the first time we had had the idea of showing the work to the parents of the youth leaders. The purpose was to show the parents how capable and talented their children are. To show the parents that the gifting and abilities their children have is partly inherited, and that they should be proud of themselves too as they see their children successfully serving the community where they live. The presentation was an instant hit, many of the youth leaders were so nervous in front of their parents more than if they were in front of 800 youth in a concert. The parents clapped, cried, danced, ate, laughed and were very happy with the work their children do in Youth Life. Many parents thanked Youth Life for all they do and pledged to help the work grow more in the future.

Vitalik with his Grandmother

What some parents said: One mother commented on how she has never seen such friendship between people like amongst the Youth Life team . Other parents cried and thanked Youth Life for helping their children to grow and learn new things for the future.

In the near future we plan to have such meetings for all volunteers’ parents and for the youth leaders’ parents.

Visit from the Ukraine to Tajikistan
3 Young people from the Ukraine visited Youth Life’s work at the end of January. A team from Khujand had visited the Ukraine the previous year and relationships were made. This team from the Ukraine came to see the work in Tajikistan and to see how they may be able to help in the future. Friendships were strengthened and the Youth Life team was greatly encouraged by seeing old friends again. Maybe new opportunities will open for young people to travel to the Ukraine to get business training in the near future. We will see……

Anna, Alexi and Valentina from Ukraine

New Year New Building

December 2006

Highlights:

New Generation Gafforov
Youth Life organized a big concert for the city of Gafforov in Tajikistan. Over 400 youth attended the concert. Youth Life has 2 clubs in Gafforov and they helped to organize and took part in the concert. The concerts program had youth from clubs performing: Traditional Tajik dance, Break dance, contemporary dance group ‘United’, other clubs also performed different dances. Two young people sang at the concert. Youth Life multimedia team also showed a special montage they had made showing the importance of friendship. The business team also practiced different kinds of businesses during the concert. Representatives from the regional Education department, local schools and parents were present and were all very happy with how the event was set up, run and the content. Requests for more concerts have been received and are planned for the near future.

Clubs performing in Gafforov at the concert

Clubs Christmas/New Year parties:
All 29 clubs organized and set up parties for the New Year and for Christmas. Money was raised from the youth in clubs giving money to the celebration or by bringing things.

Umed is a young guy who is a volunteer in one of Youth Life’s clubs, he told his youth leader that he enjoys going to his club because he has made lots of new friends, this celebration really made him happy as it was a fun time and everyone gave and received presents, he could eat and talk with his friends, such good times are not so often.

Umed a great captain!

Possible New Premises for Youth Life:
Youth Life has a had a vision for some years to move to a building where it can grow much more and have a stable base for its work. Where different projects can grow and be developed. Now an appropriate building and land has been secured and the process of repairing it and making it ready for all the activities that will happen this year is under way. A new thing that will be developed strongly are the 2 new skate parks and extreme sports centre.

Pictures of the New Youth Life Administration Building and Multimedia Studio

Adventures on the roof of the World

November 2006

Highlights:

Autumn Camp in the Mountains:

This is the sceen at the winter camp

100 youth volunteers and leaders were able to go up into the mountains of Tajikistan to spend 5 days together. The goal of this time was to build a stronger team spirit. The programme was very active and interesting. Each day there were different games and practical things teams had to do to build their teams up. It was a great fun time and it even snowed and everyone had snow ball fights and got very wet.





Marsha is a young girl helping in one of the older youth clubs, she said that she was amazed how the young leaders were able to organize such an interesting time and take responsibility for the whole trip. Her desire now is to see such potential and ability in her clubs central team so they can do more things together in the future.
Marsha has been going to one of the clubs for years and is a great volunteer.

Everyone has different talents

October 2006

Highlights:

New Generation Chekalovsk:
Youth Life held an outreach in the City of Chekalovsk, this was the first big event Youth Life had held since the summer. The focus of this outreach was to encourage young people to see the importance of Education and how it opens doors for their future. The programme consisted of dance, break dance, drama, a small montage about education, businesses, and of course lots of fun and games.

Youth Life hired a public building in Chekalovsk, they set up everything themselves, decorations, prepared the presenters, there were young people who were ushers and helpers, businesses were set up and lots of planning and organizing was done, the Director of the building that was being hired commented on how well the young leaders had organized and planned the whole event and welcomed them back again at any time.

Tajik Dance group performing at the concert in Chekalovsk

Clubs started
After 6 weeks of planning and asking for permission from different places Youth Life launched its 29 clubs for the academic year 2006 -2007. Children and young people from 4 different cities started to pour back into the youth clubs for another year of activities and fun.

One of the clubs having a good time

Angela Young visits again:
Angela is an English lady who visits the work in Tajikistan regularly she has worked with youth organizations most of her life and she comes to encourage and challenge the work to grow stronger. This visit astonished Angela as it was the first time she had seen the young leaders leading the work totally. She commented on how well the team was working and how the work was growing. She plans to visit the work again this year to encourage more and maybe bring some containers too.

Angela with Eldar at a Concert

Multimedia takes off:
Vitea who is a great youth leader found an article in the newspaper advertising a media competition in Dushanbe the Capital of Tajikistan. To qualify for the competition you needed to send a TV clip to the organization in Dushanbe within a certain time. He managed to get everything together and won a place on the seminar. In Dushanbe he found out that more than 40 people applied mostly from TV stations and only 8 were selected, he was one of the 8. His vision now for Multi media has really taken off and a business is growing to help Youth Life and the young people it is envisioning.

Vitea is responsible for Youth Life Multi Media

Education Your Future

September 2006
Highlights:

Planning for Clubs and work
This month is used to evaluate and plan Youth Life’s programmes for the whole year, time is spent listening to youth leaders, parents of the children, Directors of schools, the children themselves and our volunteer workers to see if the work is really getting results or not. Risks are assessed and changes made to the work as plans are made for the whole year ahead. It is a very important time and very effective.

Children having a good time at one of the clubs together activities

Back to school program
Each year Youth Life finds children who have dropped out of the school system but want to re-enter and finish school. Youth Life partners with another organization called Helping Hand Charity Fund where a special school has been set up to help these children re-enter the normal school system.

Sasha attended the Back to school programme for 2 years and was able to re-enter school and finish and now he is studying at college. He wants to become a mechanic.

Student’s sponsorship 2006-2007
For the past 4 years Youth Life has had an initiative to help young people who have the desire and the ability to go on to University by raising sponsorship for them. The program which started with only 4 guys has grown now to 52 students. The programme is not all for free, there are conditions that the students must meet and they must pass all entry exams to the course they want to study. Each September new students enter this programme and start studying at University, this next year we will see the first 4 guys graduate after 5 years of studying at different Universities. So a big banquet is planned to celebrate the fact they have finished and to encourage the others studying not to give up but to finish what they start.

Ira, Alisher, Katja, Madina and Aisha are all in the Student sponsorship programme and are studying well.

Summer Fun

August 2006

Retreat for all Youth Life workers
Each year a retreat is set up just for the youth workers, a time where they can relax together and recharge their batteries. A flexible programme is set up where leaders can learn to relax and just enjoy life. This time is important for the team to be able to assess all that has happened the past year so that new strength and inspiration can be found for the next year.



Youth leaders relaxing on the retreat




Summer workshops
This year for the first time Youth Life did not hold a summer camp but held several weeks of day camp activities in the city of Khujand. The idea was to create an environment like a camp but that only lasted for a day. The workshops that were held were: cooking, gardening, break dance, modern dance, traditional dance, business, crafts and many others. Many younger children came to these workshops as they could go home in the evenings. It was a good time with lots of fun. At the end of each week long workshop a celebration was held and everyone danced and sang and ate lots of food.



Children having a good time at the summer workshops




Clubs in more detail
Youth Life has been working for almost 8 years in Tajikistan helping young people where they live. One of the main ways it works is by holding interactive youth clubs in 4 cities. There are 29 youth clubs and 1500 young people attend these clubs each week. The clubs also have their own vision, business, outings, plans and program. There are clubs in different languages some are in Tajik and some in Russian. Additional to the clubs each youth leaders visits the family of at least 2 children at home each week, to keep them updated about who we are and what we are doing and if we can help in any other way.

Getting a Global Vision

July 2006

Highlights:

Second team to Bulgaria
Due to the success of the first team to Bulgaria a second trip was planned. After the break dancers returned it was necessary to send some back again to maintain the break dance that had been started and to build a team. Two youth leaders were able to go to Bulgaria for 6 weeks to help continue this work. There are plans in the future to keep partnering with other organizations in Bulgaria to learn from them and to give them the things we have learnt.


The Guys in Bulgaria teaching break dance to Gypsy youth










UKRAINE


Two teams to the Ukraine
6 Youth leaders had the chance to travel and visit the Ukraine. The trips turned out to be a great time. The first team of youth leaders traveled to Kiev to visit other youth works in the city. To see how others are working with young people and to learn from them. For many it was their first time ever abroad and the whole experience was like an education. New friends were made and relationships formed. The second team attended a youth camp outside of Kiev where they were leading teams of youth for a week. The camp was held in the forest and was a very busy and effective time. Both teams learnt a lot from these trips as their world view grew. There are now plans for other teams to travel again so they can learn more and inspire more young people at home to travel to increase their potential and abilities.


The team that went to Kiev




Eldar with new friends in the Ukraine